Friends,

We thank you for your service. We thank you for taking on an impossible, necessary task. We thank you for doing it with the care, honesty, and unwavering dedication to the truth.

We are also sorry that you had to do it.

This was a job you never should have had to take on. In a better world, our institutions would have protected us, worked openly, and led the way to safety. They didn’t. But when they failed, you all stepped up. When our leaders lied, you told the truth. What they obscured in shadow, you uncovered with light.

Knowing how hard this work can be from the inside, we can only imagine how much harder it was to do from the outside. You took a terrifying responsibility upon yourselves and in doing so, saved uncountable many lives. You did it while also living through one of the hardest times of our generation. Your dedication, your labor, and your perseverance are seen. Thank you.

May the coming months allow you time and calm to grieve, rest, and heal.

In solidarity,
a few of your fellow public servants at 18F